Grape Vines.

When we picked all the grapes we made our wine with, the owner of the vines informed us that he was going to do some major pruning on the plants and pretty much hack them down. The vines were never trellised our pruned and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Still kicking myself for not taking the camera, I'll never forget what we saw. The grape vines had completely taken over a corner of his property. They had climbed the trees, as they would naturally do, and completely covered them with vines that were just loaded down with grapes. When they had bought the property there were some grape vines there that had to be removed in order to build his home. The grape vines he had this fall were not planted by him, they were assuming they may have been spread by birds. We easily picked two five gallon buckets of grapes in an hour, after they had picked bucket upon bucket themselves and made lots of juice and jelly. His plan to hack the plants down is an attempt to tame the vines and get them to a more manageable place and size. 

Normally one would take grape clippings in the early spring months when pruning is normally done, for propagating. Since these vines may not have been still there in the spring months we took woody cuttings in the fall, about the thickness of a pencil, cut them appropriately and rolled the end in some rooting hormone before placing in this sunny window above the nice, warm heating vent.  Recently two of them have shot out leaves, probably not the most desirable since they are supposed to be dormant right now, but also probably a good sign they have rooted and are growing. I'll harden them off outdoors in the spring before planting with our other grapes. Or....we're toying with letting them swing from the trees.